DID WE HAVE A BRAIN?

 Or is it that perhaps we did have a brain but for some reason there was a kink in the wiring, either voluntarily or involuntarily. The result? Well, we are living it. It is present up front and center in the lives of all those federal workers so abruptly laid off. With a complete and total utter lack of concern as to how these people are supposed to continue in life. How were they to pay the bills? How were they to pay the mortgage? How were they going to keep their kids clothed and fed and in school?

But the problems do not remain in the private sector alone, for each person laid off creates ever widening circles, like a stone thrown into the water. Who will now patronize the local stores? Who will now patronize those stores online? Who will buy the extra treats? Who will buy the clothing? Who will in fact support the owner and the continued existence of this vital economic entity, this wee engine churning away and contributing to the economy?? An economy of a nation is totally and completely intertwined. One cannot separate out one aspect of it and assume that there will be no effect upon the others.

Neither do the deleterious effects stop at the national border. It goes way over those lines, way over the lines of acceptability. In fits of a fervor of nationalism and protectionism products of the   'Enemy” nation are pulled from the shelves. Cross border economies are shattered to smithereens as the interactions are either strained and limited or totally atrophy into nonexistence. 

In ever faster speed, in ever larger streams, consequences become more visible and intrusive. even to the least detail of our lives. That magazine you want, that candy bar your kid wants, the product your factory makes. Out of touch. Out of reach. Out of possibility, even probability, for the   costs have become prohibitive, so raised by the applications of tariffs. Common sense becomes an endangered thought as we simply repeat the errors of the past - of wars of centuries duration, of the Great Depression. So much so, that that possibility of recovery fades in the distance. A long term and difficult. to regain momentum energy enough and faith strong enough. that we can turn the nation and those of the world upright once again. 

Why so? Globalism has long been around, with great power and impact. Like it or not, globalism, the sharing of manufacturing, of raw materials, is now spread round the world. If worked properly it would be beneficial to all. Unfortunately, however, mankind apparently is not built that way nor lean that way. Rather than cooperate and everyone prosper, we try to hoard it all to ourselves and disregard the fact that we cannot separate our fate from the fates of others.

We stopped sending funds already allocated to USAIDS for study on the diseases and syndromes endemic in Africa. Brainless folks think, not our problem, so far away. We conveniently discount or count out the rapid transmissions of disease due to international travel. Here one day and there the next. All those on the face of this planet to suffer, for no one is immune. Moreover, we forget the proverb of Judaism - " If I am only for others, what am I? If I am only for myself, who am I?"  

It is the butterfly effect within human beings. When a person falls as victim in Syria, or a mother loses a child in Sudan or Darfur, when that gay man is chased down the streets of Nigeria, when a woman is beaten and killed in Iran or Afghanistan for showing hair, when singing or dancing is forbidden. this is all part and parcel of the same raw attitudes, the same raw intertwined fates. A fact that we refuse in this world, to remember, particularly in the halls of the White House and Congress. 

Forgotten are our duties to others, to help those who have not been given so much. We disremember that in so denying, we are in the end denying ourselves and shutting down our brains.

  Towns empty of population welcomed the influx of immigrants. So powerful and necessary injection to the local economy. Now these same cities are wondering how will we do without our new citizens? How will we maintain our local economy? Their stores and the stores they patronized will fail. Our local tax collections will suffer, as will the services these monies provided for. Furthermore, where and how we do we gain the benefit of their fresh thinking and new ideas, match and meet and foster their hunger for learning. Those people who screamed about immigrants, well, did you get what you voted for?    

Those who screamed about veterans and their treatment or lack thereof, what have you enabled?  Thousands of vets dumped from their jobs within the federal government. Services at vet hospitals cut to the bone. Services addressing needs, both physical and emotional, disappearing as we speak.  For those who screamed about the schools, for those who claim to be fighting for the rights of parents and of children, now look what you've done. Where the hell were your brains? Will you be happy with the next generation. of illiterate hidebound adults unable to be believed, to live as adults, to become the caretakers and saviors of a vastly challenged ever more complicated world. In fact, we will create a world of poverty, of ignorance. of disease. Inches of hard fought for progress will be swallowed hole, as we lose yards and miles. 

We have empowered too many to stick their noses where they don't belong. We have allowed Trump and Musk and all the cowards within the Cabinet, in both Houses of Congress, in state and city legislatures, among nabobs of industry, to chicken out, to bottom out, from fear, as they stand by and watch the dissolution of our three-branch government. We have a bizarre power crazed president and unelected president, both equally as toxic in the executive branch, who lusts after the powers of all. We have a legislative branch of government afraid of their own shadows, groveling, sniveling, begging, kneeling with bowed heads before that would be king. And our judiciary branch is rife with ignorance of the law, its applications and interpretations, corruption, bribery, bias, and repayment of debts and favor owed, including that owed to Trump and his acolytes. 

Our three-branch government must function as such. An executive, legislative, and judicial branch, properly knowing the borders of their rights, and all respecting the other rather than usurping their powers, shredding them, taking away all that they are and leaving behind a non-functioning nation.   

Where have we gone, America. Where are we planning to go? Do we really think that we want to go there? Have we even, ever, thought it through? Have we followed the threads? I doubt that we have indeed followed those threads to inevitable conclusions. We are simply not looking forward with open eyes, clear minds, and intent to do only good and the beneficial for this nation. 

We have cut our own throats. We have ransacked the future possibilities for our children and left behind dregs, barely functioning, crippled as to potentiality and bereft of true hope and possibilities. 

Did we have a brain this recent past?? Do we have a brain at present? Can we reboot and open it up again. Do we remember how to pick and choose, how to discern the chaff and separate it from the   grain? Will we recognize lies and turn them aside? Will we accept the challenge along with the knowledge that we are the ones who caused this? We are the ones who allowed this. We are the ones who decided that Trump would not bring to life his insane destructive plans, who would use his office   for crazed imagined revenge, retribution to all who dared to pose him. It is we who are allowing the actual possibility of this country changing into an authoritarian dictator ruled government with puppet legislatures and cowed citizens. 

 We had functioning brains, once, not so long ago.   The brains of today are highly compromised. 

What will be with the brains of 

On the morrow?